The Florida State University College of Law is accepting applications from college juniors at Florida State as part of a new 3 + 3 program.

Under the recently approved program, students who meet certain admission requirements can complete a bachelor’s degree and a law degree in six years rather than the traditional seven, saving a year of time and costs.

“I am extremely excited that our new 3 + 3 program at Florida State has been approved,” said Dean Don Weidner. “In short, under this program, the first year of law school is double-counted: that is, it is credited both to the law degree and to the undergraduate degree.”

The result, Weidner said, is that students and their families save the entire cost of the fourth year of college.

“We really think this is going to be most attractive to students who are the most motivated, focused, and disciplined students already,” said Jennifer Kessinger, FSU Law’s director of admissions.

At a time when many are talking about reducing law school from three to two years, Kessinger said Florida State feels that if students are going to “cut out a year somewhere, it would probably be more beneficial to the students to cut out that fourth year of undergraduate versus cutting out a year of law school.”

To be eligible, students must have already completed all their undergraduate major requirements, “so these 30 credit hours are really kind of their electives,” Kessinger said.She said the law school does not yet know how many students will opt for the 3 + 3 program.

“We think it is probably going to take time to grow the program,” Kessinger said. “Obviously, a lot of the calls we have been getting are from sophomores and freshman who are hearing about it. They are definitely going to have to plan effectively from the time they enroll in undergraduate studies to be able to participate.”

Dean Weidner expects to finalize similar agreements with several other universities in the near future.